Of Mice And Men

Loneliness Is Soledad

Loneliness in Of Mice and Men is inevitable. Throughout the story there are many examples of solitude and loneliness. Prejudice and discrimination are the main sources of loneliness and solitude. These 2 main sources obviously result in loneliness and isolation. Steinbeck is trying to say that the most important thing in this world that you can have is a friend. Without friends and companions people all around the world would be suffering from loneliness and solitude. Most of the characters in the story are envious and jealous of George and Lennie's friendship. The most envious and jealous are Crooks, Candy and Curley's wife. Throughout the story these characters all exhibit their loneliness and Steinbeck has given them all different reasons and different levels of loneliness. Crooks childhood on the chicken farm, Curley's wife vision of one day being in pictures and George and Lennie's dream of living on a farm are all signs of loneliness.

The setting of the novel is the most obvious reason of loneliness. The setting is taken in Soledad. If you look up Soledad in Spanish it means "loneliness." The full name of this California town is "Nuestra Senora de Soledad" which in English means "Our Lady of Loneliness."

Let's start with Crooks. Crooks has no friends or relationships with anyone in his society. The only thing that Crooks has a Ð''relationship' with is loneliness. He can relate to loneliness and tries to test Lennie by asking him what he would do if George didn't come back. "Ð'...Well, s'pose, jus' s'pose he don't come back. What'll you do then?..." Crooks asks this question because he doesn't have any friends and doesn't know what it would feel like if you were to lose them or for them not to come back unexpectedly. The other reason that he tortures Lennie with those questions is because he needs to ease his jealousy of Lennie and George. Another reason that Crooks is so lonely is because he is black. His whole society around him is racist and prejudiced. Much of his loneliness comes from rejection of the white people around him. "Ð'...Cause I'm black. They play cards in there, but I can't play because I'm Black. They say I stink. Well I tell you, you all stink to me!..." He isn't even allowed to participate in activities with the other men. Another thing that Crooks isn't allowed to do is sleep in the same area as the white men. He is alone and isolated in his room in the barn. A valid point is that because he is black they even treat him like an animal. He lives in a barn like an animal and they don't even call him by his name most of the time they call him nigger, just like you might do an animal. All that Crooks really wants is sympathy and understanding from others. This is something that he will never receive because the people wouldn't even give him a chance.

Candy is the only character in the book that has hope of overcoming his loneliness. Candy tries to buy George and Lennie's friendship by offering them the most money of the three to put up on the "ranch dream." When he offers such a large amount of money it isn't just to get out of the farm. The real reason that he puts up that amount of money is to attempt to buy a friendship from Lennie and George, but you cannot buy a real and genuine friendship. Something like that just happens and it happens from the heart, not from money. This is his one desperate attempt to find a place in society and a meaning in his life, but it never even gets to happen so Candy is left alone again. George never even showed an interest in being Candy's friend and for the most part after Lennie had to be killed George will most likely have become friends with Slim. After Candy lost his dog his loneliness and solitude became worse. The only thing worse then not having a friend is losing the only one that you have ever had and cared about. The dog was the only friend and companion that Candy had had in his life and he told that dog everything and confided in him. Most of his life was within that dog. All of his memories, thoughts and feelings all went into his dog. "Ð'...He reached over and patted the ancient dog, and he apologized, "I been around him so much I never notice how

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